Bloom Session 1

Introduction

Bloom is a computer program. It was made so that making easy reading materials (books) can be easier. Bloom was designed with new computer users in mind. It has special features to guide them. People need less training when compared to other programs.

Because of this, Bloom can help more people get involved in building a large collection books in the local language. Later, other people can use Bloom to translate those books into other languages.

We know that it takes many books to make reading worthwhile and fun. True literacy also takes many books. Otherwise, readers do not get enough practice. The problem has been who will make all those books? How will we find the time? Where will we get the content? That is why Bloom was created.

In Bloom, a collection is a group of books, shell books or templates. There are two kinds of collections.

A local language collection is collection of books/stories that are written in the local language.

A source collection is a collection that uses a national or regional language. The books and shell books made here are intended to be books that will be translated into local language collections. That is, they are one of the sources of books.

Getting Started

In Bloom, the term book includes books as normally understood. Book also can include other publications such as a wall calendar. In this session, we will focus on making a regular book.

The installers can be found at this URL: https://bloomlibrary.org/installers. Install Bloom version 4. Install Art of Reading 3.1. The software requires Microsoft Windows 7 or later and Microsoft .Net Framework 4. 6.1. Bloom Reader is an Android app for distributing Bloom books on Android devices.

The data files for this session are found in the subfolder Data\Lizard and Hyena.

Start Bloom.

To Create a New Collection

When Bloom is first opened, you see only the Collections tab. Otherwise you see the standard toolbar.

Select English as the main language for this collection. Then click Next.

Select Andika New Basic as the font for this collection. Then click Next.

Enter country and then click Next.

Enter English Books as the project name and click Next.

Click Finish.

3. The Main window appears. At the top of the window, the name of your new collection and the version number of Bloom appears. Now you are ready to add a book to your collection.

To Add a Basic Book to a Collection

1. In the Main window, under the Collections icon, you have the collection name along with a list of all the books in this collection. You have several pre-defined templates in the Sources for New Books pane.

In the Sources for New Books pane, click Basic Book.

Click Make a book using this source.

2. The Book window appears. Bloom makes a book from the template. It opens to the Front Cover page. Notice that the book appears in the Edit tab. The left pane is called Pages. It shows the pages that are in your book. The highlighted page in the Pages pane is displayed in the center. The Front Cover page should be displayed. The top text box should hold the book title.

Edit Front Cover as follows: Enter The Lizard and the Hyena as the title. Click Change Image in the upper right hand corner of the picture frame, then click File and select Pic3.png in the data subfolder. Click Set up metadata to add metadata information about the picture. This includes the name of the creator, the copyright year, the copyright holder and the licensing information and click OK. Then click OK.

Edit Title Page as appropriate

Edit Credits Page by clicking Click to edit Copyright & License. Then enter the contents of TCredits.txt into the appropriate textboxes. Then click OK.

Now we are ready to add content to our book. Click Add Page. The Add Page dialog box appears. It shows templates you can use to add more pages to your book. The name of each template describes the page layout for that page. For example, the Picture On Bottom template lets you put words at the top of the page, while the picture is below the words. Basic Text & Picture puts the picture on the top of the words. Select Basic Text & Picture. Then click Add this Page. The new page appears in the Pages pane. Insert picture Pic1.jpg in the image frame. For more information about inserting picture/images into a picture frame.

Insert the contents of Text.txt – first section into textbox. Click the Gear icon to change font and size of the text. For more information about inserting content into a textbox.

Click on the Question Mark for one of the pictures to add license information for all the pictures.

To Publish a Basic Book

Now we are ready to publish this book by creating a pdf file which can be taken to a printer for printing.
1. Click the Publish icon.

Explain each option briefly.

Select Booklet Cover.

Click Save PDF to save it as pdf file.

Select Booklet Insides.

Click Save PDF to save it as pdf file.

Go to the folder where you saved the pdf files. Display pdf files.

Exercises

To practice creating a basic book using Bloom, do the following:
1. Create a basic book using the pictures and text in the Data\Counting cats subfolder. Create it in the English Book collection. Use the Basic Book template.
2. Fill in the front cover page, the credit page and the title page.
3. Create the necessary pages for the story, trying different template pages.
4. Add any copyright information required
5. Create a pdf booklet of the story
6. Display the pdf booklet.